Method for manufacturing a three-dimensionally deformable, sheet-like reinforcing structure

Abstract

A method for manufacturing a three-dimensionally deformable, sheet-like reinforcing structure, wherein material attenuations are incorporated into a sheet-like, cellular base material, distributed over an area of the base material, by means of cutting or sawing, said material attenuations sub-dividing the base material into a plurality of material cells which are delineated from each other by the material attenuations but are still connected to each other.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for manufacturing a three-dimensionally deformable, sheet-like reinforcing structure, comprising:
 incorporating material attenuations into a sheet-like, cellular base material, distributed over an area of the base material, by at least one of piercing, cutting and sawing, 
 sub-dividing by said material attenuations the base material into a plurality of material cells, 
 said material cells delineated from each other by said material attenuations but still connected to each other, 
 wherein the material attenuations are passages extending from an upper side to a lower side of the reinforcing structure and are incorporated in such a way that bridges remain between adjacent material attenuations and connect adjacent material cells to each other, 
 wherein a cross-sectional area of the bridges is reduced by compression and the bridges are compacted from the upper side and the lower side, such that they fall short of the upper side and the lower side of the respectively adjacent material cells. 
 
     
     
       2. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein a cross-sectional area of the bridges is reduced by compression from an upper and a lower side of the bridges. 
     
     
       3. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the cross-sectional area of the bridges is reduced by heating and compressing the heated bridges. 
     
     
       4. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein a cross-sectional area of the bridges is reduced as compared with a cross-sectional area of the material cells such that they fall short of an upper side and a lower side of the respectively adjacent material cells. 
     
     
       5. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the bridges are closer to one of the upper side and the lower side than to the respective other one of the upper side and the lower side. 
     
     
       6. The method according to  claim 4 , wherein each of the bridges fall short of the upper side by at least a first distance and each of the bridges fall short of the lower side by at most a second distance, the first distance being greater than the second distance. 
     
     
       7. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the material cells are compacted near the surface and thus rounded on an upper side or a lower side, along at least a part of edges formed by incorporating the material attenuations. 
     
     
       8. The method according to  claim 7 , wherein the material cells are heated at least in the region of the edges to be rounded, and are compacted near the surface along the heated edges. 
     
     
       9. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein cutting involves stabbing which preferably penetrates through the base material. 
     
     
       10. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein sawing involves jig or sabre sawing which preferably penetrates through the base material. 
     
     
       11. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the material attenuations are incorporated by piercing or cutting and then sawing. 
     
     
       12. The method according to  claim 7 , wherein piercing or cutting is performed in a piercing or cutting plane, and sawing is performed in the same cutting plane. 
     
     
       13. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the material attenuations are produced in the base material in the form of one of recesses or passages, by cutting or sawing or piercing. 
     
     
       14. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein cutting is performed using cutting knives or sawing is performed using saw blades or piercing is performed by using piercing needles which are only moved in a single cutting or sawing or piercing plane when incorporating the material attenuations. 
     
     
       15. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the material attenuations are sawn using saw blades which exhibit a thickness which corresponds to a width of the material attenuations. 
     
     
       16. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein in order to incorporate the material attenuations, cutting knives of a cutting tool or saw blades of a sawing tool or piercing needles facing an upper side of the base material are moved into or through the base material towards a lower side of the base material. 
     
     
       17. The method according to  claim 12 , wherein the cutting knives each comprise a cutting edge which is inclined with respect to the movement direction, or the saw blades each comprise a row of saw teeth which is inclined with respect to the movement direction. 
     
     
       18. The method according to  claim 13 , wherein the cutting knives or saw blades or piercing needles comprise a tip protruding in the movement direction. 
     
     
       19. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein plastic foam material is used as the base material, in which reinforcing structures are optionally embedded. 
     
     
       20. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the sheet-like reinforcing structure comprising the material cells, the material attenuations and the bridges is covered at an upper side with a first covering layer and at a lower side with a second covering layer, the attenuations being filled with a joiner which encloses the bridges. 
     
     
       21. The method according to  claim 20 , wherein at least one of the covering layers is a layer pre-impregnated with the joiner. 
     
     
       22. The method according to  claim 20 , wherein the sheet-like reinforcing structure is covered with one of the layers, all or only part of the joiner is poured onto the reinforcing structure to fill the attenuations, and then the reinforcing structure filled with the joiner is covered with the other of the covering layers. 
     
     
       23. The method according to  claim 20 , wherein the joiner connects the covering layers to each other in a material connection, permeates the sheet-like reinforcing structure in the region of the material attenuations and encloses the bridges and at least the sides of the material cells of the reinforcing structure.